Vehicle Rental company Hertz orders 100,000 Tesla Model 3 electric cars, Largest order of its kind

Car rental company Hertz has announced to place an order of 100,000 electric vehicles from Tesla which will account for 20 percent of all Hertz vehicles.

Hertz Tesla Model 3 rental fleet

Car rental company Hertz has announced to place an order of 100,000 electric vehicles from Tesla. The global vehicle leasing company says it's buying the Tesla Model 3 entry level electric cars by the end of 2022, and it also will buy electric vehicle chargers. No price was given for the order, but it has to be worth around $4 billion because each Model 3 has a base price of around $40,000. Tesla Model 3 is the largest selling electric car of the recent times, also pushing Tesla to become most valuable automaker in the world, leaving behind companies like Toyota, GM and Ford, which rule the sales chart in the same order.

Hertz emerged from bankruptcy protection in June and named former Ford CEO Mark Fields as interim CEO in October. Fields says the Estero, Florida-based company intends to lead as a mobility company with the largest electric vehicle rental fleet in North America. He says EVs are now mainstream vehicles, and the company is starting to see rising global demand and interest.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. Filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2020. It was among the first major corporations to be felled by the pandemic last year as infections surged and shut down travel on a global scale for both companies and vacationers. 

With growing number of EV chargers, many countries have addressed range anxiety issue with electri cars, especially the ones in Europe, hence pushing the electric car sales to newer heights. Europe has the most density of electric chargers than any other continent, with countries like the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark pushing the electric mobility to the roof.

In Norway alone, electric car sales have overshadowed petrol car sales with more than 50 percent vehicles now sold as EVs. In fact, in Europe, electric vehicles have now replaced diesel cars to become second highest selling fuel type after petrol cars. 

With inputs from PTI